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Cakeland - Oakland, CA
On the edge of a quiet neighborhood, below CA-24 in North Oakland, there’s this storefront. During the day it looks like it might be an abandoned bakery, the interior obscured by huge slabs of painted cardboard, bars over the door. At night it glows pink and blue, the sign above the entry shimmering to show the moniker: Cakeland.
Folks don’t typically get inside, though – the artist behind Cakeland, Scott Hove, got some press at the gallery’s inception a couple years back, but mostly he keeps it closed now. For surrounding residents, his magnum opus is an enimga, a curiosity.
Shannon & The Clams, whose members live practically around the corner, fit perfectly into Scott's culinary fantasy world. Even their outfits matched the soft pastel interior. Their music is like his cake: staggering, seductive, but not without fangs. They tiptoed between the dazzling, wall-mounted behemoths, dragging amps and drums through the narrow corridors, trying to avoid getting scraped by acrylic decorations and real taxidermic teeth. They set up wherever they could, clams Cody and Ian crammed in opposite corners, Shannon standing alone with her Dano in the Cake vault. What ensued was lip-smacking; a few of the more sugary cuts from their new album, Sleep Talk. "Done With You" is above. Follow up with us soon for more from this session.